A JUDGE says the people who ordered police to remove a “tent dress” from an Occupy Melbourne protester should be “shot”.

Sydney-based judge Geoffrey Flick delivered the rebuke on the second day of an appeal in the Full Federal Court ­yesterday.

The protester who wore the dress, Sara Kerrison, is appealing against a Federal Court ruling that largely dismissed a challenge to the lawfulness of actions by police and City of Melbourne officers in breaking up protests in the city in ­November-December 2011.

Demonstrators occupied the City Square and Treasury and Flagstaff gardens as part of a global movement protesting over economic inequality.

Justice Flick, one of three appeal judges, said he had reviewed footage of the removal of the tent dress and was shocked by what he saw.

“Those who made the directions for this conduct to be pursued should be shot. It’s grossly offensive,” he said.

Ron Merkel, QC, for Ms Kerrison, said of the dress: “It was a protest item in the morning and she slept in it at night.

“It had pins and … when it was being pulled off her they were digging into her — which is why the screaming happened. The requirement that she take off or remove the tent dress was probably a lawful requirement … but I should say when Mr (Samuel) Schartz (manager of parking and traffic) was shown that video your Honour saw, he said it was wrong for them to have done what they did,” the QC said.

To disperse protesters, the City of Melbourne relied on council by-laws that prohibited advertising signs or camping without a permit.

Mr Merkel argued an implied constitutional freedom of political communication and rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression under Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights were breached.

Victoria Police and the City of Melbourne, who are the respondents to the appeal, both declined to comment.

The appeal, before Justices Flick, Jayne Jagot and Debbie Mortimer, was to continue today.